Electrical and electronic equipment is oftentimes constructed of circuit cards mounting components which are interconnected to form the equipment. Typically, equipment consists of circuit card mounting frames that are constructed to receive plug-in circuit cards that are interconnected to form the electrical and electronic equipment.
Circuit card mounting frames may be constructed with rows of shelves wherein each shelf is open at the front and arranged to receive a number of the plug-in circuit cards. The back of each shelf may have a printed wiring backplane provided with connectors positioned thereon to correspond with and receive each plug-in circuit card. The contacts of the sockets are interconnected by conductors printed on the printed wiring backplane which interconnect the shelf circuit cards. Cabling is formed along the back of the circuit card mounting frame between the rows of shelves and is connected to the printed conductors of each shelf printed wiring backplane. The cabling interconnects the shelves so that each plug-in circuit card may be connected to other circuit cards in accordance with a preplanned wiring configuration of the printed wiring backplanes and interconnecting cabling.
A problem arises that even small changes in the design of the electrical and electronic equipment requires that the frame cabling and printed wiring backplane conductors be changed to effect equipment design changes. Another problem arises in that new designs of circuit cards generate heat that requires new configurations of circuit card mounting frames that dissipate heat and allow air to freely circulate among the frame mounted circuit cards. Accordingly, a need exists for backplane apparatus that allows circuit cards to be interconnected without requiring the rewiring of circuit card mounting frames and that is adaptable for use with multiple circuit card mounting frame configurations and which allows the circulation of air around mounted circuit cards.